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Punch-A-Bunch
The first ever all cash game to be played on The Price is Right and it is still being played today. The name comes from the fact that the contestant can "Punch-A-Bunch"; the "bunch means a lot of money. Gameplay The centerpiece of Punch a Bunch is a punchboard which conceals a slip with a dollar value in each of its 50 paper-covered holes. To begin the game, the contestant is shown four small prizes, one at a time, each tagged with an incorrect price. They must decide whether the correct price of each prize is higher or lower than the price shown. For each correct decision, the contestant wins that prize and earns one punch at the board. After all four prizes are played, the contestant makes the number of punches won, leaving the slips inside the holes. The slip in the first hole punched is removed and shown to the contestant. They must then decide whether to keep the cash amount and quit, or give it back and look in the next hole. The game continues until the contestant accepts the money on a slip or has no more holes to look in, and wins the amount found in the final hole. Second chance There are four special slips on the board, one each of the lowest four values ($50, $100, $250, and $500), which also have "second chance" written on them. If one of these slips is found in a punched hole, the contestant immediately punches an additional hole. The amount found in this new hole is added to the amount on the second chance slip; If any original holes remain, the contestant may accept the total, or return both slips to look in the next of their original holes. If a second chance punch reveals another second chance slip, the contestant makes an additional punch which is added to the previous total as well. As a result, the maximum prize available in the Punch a Bunch is $25,900, which is won by revealing a second chance slip, punching out each of the three remaining second chance slips in the resulting second chance punches, and finally punching out the $25,000 slip on the final second chance punch. Nevertheless, due to the unlikelihood of first revealing a second chance slip, and then the $25,000 slip on the second chance punch, the announced top prize for the game is simply $25,000, which is the most that can be won with one slip. Wins of greater than $10,000 have occurred during the period in which $10,000 was the largest value on the board (see History below), although no contestant has ever chained more than one second chance slip with the top prize. Thus, the most ever won in Punch a Bunch during this period was the $500 second chance slip followed by the $10,000 slip for a total of $10,500. Since the 40th season began, the second chance concept was removed. Cash distribution The distribution of prize slips has been altered at various times to adjust the top prize, including for prime time specials. Daytime For three seasons, the distribution of prize slips is this: *One each of $50, $100, $250 and $500 slips is marked "second chance" as described above. The distribution of prize slips is currently: Primetime The prize slip distribution for Million Dollar Spectaculars is: *One each of $100, $500, $1,000 and $5,000 slips is marked "second chance" as described above, for a maximum possible prize of $56,600. *On the May 14, 2008 special, Punch a Bunch was the Million Dollar Game. For that playing, if the contestant's first punch revealed the $50,000 slip, they would win $1,000,000. History Punch a Bunch was the first game to be played for a primary prize consisting only of cash - originally $10,000. It debuted on September 26, 1978 with slightly different gameplay which continued for its first eleven playings. Instead of a single punch on the board, the contestant took two punches for each correctly priced prize: One in the 50-hole main board, as today, and a second in the top row of the game's original board, which had ten holes spelling "punchboard". The ten "punchboard" holes contained the numbers one to ten, and the 50 main holes contained slips saying "Dollars" (20 slips), "Hundred" (20 slips), or "Thousand" (10 slips). The two slips punched were taken together to form a cash value (for example, punches of "5" and "Hundred" would be a prize of $500. Additionally, the contestant made their punches after each correct small prize guess, instead of after all four. Thus, if a contestant declined a prize value, and did not correctly guess any subsequent small prize(s), they would win nothing. The game's current rules debuted on December 1, 1978, with $10,000 as the highest-valued slip, and the announced top prize. However, by virtue of the second chance slips mentioned above, the top prize was actually $10,900. From December 1, 1978 until the end of season 36 in 2008, the distribution was as follows: *One each of $50, $100, $250 and $500 slips was marked "second chance" as described above. Prime time specials (2001-2007) For the prime time specials aired from Season 30 through 35, Punch a Bunch's top prize was $25,000 and no second chance slips were used. The prize distribution was as follows: Presentation changes The original punchboard, used until May 29, 1996, had a yellow exterior flanked by blue curved lines. When the game debuted, the Punch a Bunch sign had a red and green color scheme; it was changed to yellow on September 15, 1980. The original ten "punchboard" holes remained in place until the current set was unveiled, even though they were not used in the gameplay after the original rules were abandoned. The introduction of the game initially took place on the turntable, and featured a model holding a $10,000 bill with the host's face on it; then the model would move to stand beside the punchboard. A green sign reading "$10,000" in a font resembling that of American currency was present on the wall of the turntable behind the model. On September 10, 1996, the current punchboard and set debuted, and the staging was changed so that The Giant Price Tag rises to reveal the model holding the $10,000 bill while standing in front of the board. Foreign versions On the 80's UK version, the top prize was £500, and there were a few £0's on the board, while Italy's OK offered a new car. On the Netherlands Cash en Carlo, the distribution is as such: Pictures Punch-A-Bunch 1.jpg|The Old Punch-A-Bunch Punchboard Punch-A-Bunch 2.jpg|Here it is again from later years. Janice Plays Punch-A-Bunch.jpg|Longtime model Janice Pennington playing the game herself. This all came about because she said "I've always wanted to play the game." This happened while Rod Roddy was reading off the prizes. Punch-A-Bunch 3.jpg|The Current Punch-A-Bunch Punchboard Category:Pricing Games